kiss-bitten confessional
It rolled off his tongue unbidden, too soon, while he was sweaty with the feeling of Draco's hands on his skin. Draco froze beside him, warm breath against his neck suddenly absent, trailing fingers teasing at his pubic hair suddenly still.
"I meant," Harry started, shutting his eyes against the horror, still too shagged out to make sense of what exactly he'd said and why he shouldn't have said it. "Like, that was nice. I meant I loved— that."
"Nice," Draco said flatly, retreating like he'd cast an Occlumens across the readable surfaces of his body.
"Fucking nice?" ventured Harry, hoping to salvage even some of the night. He ran loose, damp fingers through Draco's hair, tugging at the back the way Draco liked it, but Draco stayed too still and Harry's chest felt like it might've seen the wrong end of a Diffindo.
"Right," Draco said, too quickly, belatedly pulling his hand from its tease beside Harry's overstimulated cock. "Right. Nice. Loved it too," he murmured, though his mind was clearly spinning elsewhere.
Harry almost opened his betraying mouth again and tried to fix it with the words begging to unspool. It's just that he was still getting used to using those words because he'd never really had a reason to say it. He still wasn't sure when he was meant to say it and when it was too soon. How was he supposed to know that letting it roll off the sex-drunk tongue might mess up a perfectly good thing?
Instead, he said, "Yeah, I love Ron too, and Hermione loads. No big deal."
That, evidently, was the wrong thing to say. Draco's handsome, arched feet were on the floor and stomping over to his abandoned clothes faster than Harry could blink. He searched the tangled sheets for his abandoned glasses, found them dangling precariously off the side of the bed, flung aside in that haze of need from only moments ago.
"I hear you loud and clear," Draco interrupted as he shoved a foot into his trousers with such force he nearly tore a seam.
"I'm, er, not completely certain you do," Harry continued, glasses on but completely blind.
"Sure, let's question my intelligence too." Draco didn't bother to button his expensive shirt, plucking his oxfords off the floor with a disdainful sniff. "Ta for another nice shag, Potter." He waggled his fingers and let the bedroom door slam a little too hard behind him.
Harry stared stupidly at the peeling white paint on the back of the door, wishing desperately he could go back to being crowded up against it with a hand blissfully tugging his hair and holding him in position. He hadn't meant to say it, not till he was really sure. It's just that his recent discovery of the phrase had sent him searching every corner of his life for the chance to say those three words.
And Draco had stared at him like he was feeling it too, big grey eyes bare to him, soaking in every bit of Harry like he was more important than breathing. Maybe Harry was a fool for thinking that looked like love.